


Intricacies

by satiredichotomy



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-12-29
Updated: 2005-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 11:46:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12863859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/satiredichotomy/pseuds/satiredichotomy
Summary: He's only ever had one good teacher and he won't let her go.





	Intricacies

**Author's Note:**

> I kept thinking of the Swimming challenge when writing this, but I liked the original point more. School it is.

He looked great on paper as a young child. Good at science and math, devoted to music, but also interested in some non-competitive sports. Teachers liked that. They thought he would just keep on doing that and they would lead the way.

They were wrong.

He was determined to be the best. Number One, not Two. When the piano proved to be a hell worse than his home instead of his salvation from it, he quit. Moved onto the next thing on the list that he knew he could do but hadn't bothered to put more effort into. It happened to be science.

He pushed on and built an atomic bomb. Teachers didn't like that so much. He didn't let them get to him this time. He was aware that they were no longer proud of him but scared, because he was much smarter than them. And from them, he only learned how to act superior and smug and squash others like a bug.

University passed on by, earning degree after degree, ignoring teacher after teacher. And even then, after becoming an expert on the Stargate, he was made Number Two to Samantha Carter's Number One.  


> _"The Pentagon feels Dr McKay has become the world's foremost expert on the Gate."  
>    
>  "After Major Carter."_

In the beginning, he was convinced that there was a logical reason why she was better - teachers and family that encouraged her, for example. He'd love to have her teach him how to be brilliant. It didn't take long to realise that she was in a league of her own and no one taught her how to get there. It's instinctual and artistic. It's something he's lacking.  


> _I turned to science because I thought it would be different than music, but it isn't. It's just the same, it's just as much of an art as anything else._

Years later, in a different galaxy, he lives in a flying city parked in the middle of an ocean. It's stressful. His shrink tells him to branch out, find a hobby of some sort.

When he looks at her blankly, she asks, "Haven't you ever had a hobby, Rodney?"

He thinks back to university. Nope, not unless a one-time experiment with marijuana counts. Goes back to high school and there's nothing there but utter determination to get out of his house and into the best college. Finally arrives at grade school and remembers those purposely forgotten days before science became his life.

"I swam as a child," he finally says to shut her up.

A week later, he's trapped underwater in a puddlejumper with a hallucinated Samantha to keep him company. She tries to talk to him about trust and he doesn't want to hear it.

He returns to Heightmeyer without fail. "Shark-infested waters? Not really my thing."

But then, after the next disaster has befallen Atlantis, he decides to wander. He feels the need to get away from the city that he knows. Despite the fact that he's unlocked even more of the city's secrets, Atlantis has now been tainted by the Goa'uld and Earth politics as well as the Wraith and he wants to find something new and untouched.

He's stood in an undiscovered part of the city, in front of one too many doors. Deciding which door to open is harder than it seems, and then the choice is taken away from him. He's immediately alert, but there's no one around him. Step through Door [#3](https://www.livejournal.com/rsearch/?tags=%233), please.

It doesn't take him long to realise he's looking at a massive swimming pool. It feels like some kind of karmic balance is being restored. Teyla would say that it was a sign from the Ancestors. A reminder, perhaps, that their city was not designed for work alone.

He doesn't know what to believe. But sometimes, when he's had a hard day and decides to go for an evening swim just because he can, he believes Atlantis is behind it. Maybe it's an apology for the sharks swimming around her. Perhaps it's an attempt to help him, for she undoubtedly hears all words uttered within her.

If he can learn to trust that his team will come and find him when he needs them, then maybe he can trust that this teacher isn't out to get him.

END


End file.
